Australian Adoption
by pegasus writing-dragon
Summary: The dursley's send Harry to an orphanage where he is later adopted by a traveller.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

To most people in Little Whining the morning was like any other. The air may have seemed cleaner, the dawn sky clearer and the sun more cheerful than normal but wrapped up in their little lives none noticed. It seemed that the world itself was celebrating something and in a way it was. The sense of relief that the more perceptive residents could feel was attributed to the fact that the dark lord, Voldemort had finally been defeated after many years of war. None of the muggles would know this of course but the wizarding population was overjoyed. Late the night before the dark lord along with two of his most trusted deatheaters had attacked the Potter family. While the deatheaters stood watch the dark lord had personally killed James Potter as he tried to buy time for his wife and young son to escape but it was not to be. Lily too was killed in a flash of green light as she protected her son with her body but a strange thing happened next for when the dark lord turned his wand on the baby his curse rebounded upon its caster and the house they were in, destroying both. No one had ever survived the killing curse before; no one had ever survived after the dark lord had tried to kill them. For these reasons all through the wizarding world people were talking of Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived.

For one couple in particular the day was started with a scream as Petunia Dursley opened the front door of their perfectly ordinary house to find her nephew on the front step with a letter from the headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. It said that her sister was dead and they were to look after the boy as he would be safe from the remaining servants of the dark lord. Why did that stupid, freaky sister of hers have to go and get herself killed anyway? Well, it wasn't going to stay here no matter what the letter said; it could hurt her precious son Dudley with its freakishness. They would have to keep it for a few days though until the freaks stopped watching their house. After that though, they would find somewhere to dump him. With that settled she picked the bundle up and carried it none too carefully into the house.

A week later Vernon, Petunia's husband was driving through the streets looking for a good place to dump the boy where it would not be traced back to him and his family. A set of imposing wrought iron gates caught his eye, making him slow. A sign next to the gates proclaimed it to be an orphanage, perfect. Pulling the car up to the nearest parking bay he climbed out grabbing the blanket wrapped boy before approaching the orphanage. A girl who looked too old to be a charge but still quite young answered his knock and took the boy quickly jotting down the little bit of information he gave before closing the door. Vernon turned and strolled back to his car, whistling as he drove away from the place glad to never have to look at his only nephew ever again.

From there, life for harry didn't get any better. The orphanage was an old one and fairly run down as the owner refused to spend any more money on the brats than he had to. He seemed to think that they owed him for letting them stay and was prepared to take the price out of there skins if he had to. The only workers he had were the cook and Kaysey, who looked after the youngest children and made sure that the older ones did their chores. She also set up adoptions and took in the newcomers.

There he was taken care of by a kind girl for the next few months of his life. The girl knew the owner was abusive though and tried extra hard to get as many of the children adopted as possible. With Harry though, she was almost desperate to get the boy out of the orphanage, there was just something about the boy that set him apart from all the other boys and girls that had been through the orphanage. The manager noticed that too and the looks that he had been sending in the child's direction seemed to promise cruelty of another level entirely, making her even more desperate. When an older couple with an odd accent entered one day, saying that they had been 'drawn' in this direction she immediately asked them if they would be willing or knew of anyone who would be willing to adopt a child. They told her that their granddaughter might be willing to take on a child, did it matter that she lived by her self. Torn by that the girl said that normally it would but if they could prove that she would take care of a child then it wouldn't be a problem, she would just say that they would be looking after the child. They agreed to this and after a short discussion pulled a worn looking photo album out of a backpack.

Flipping it open to one of the pictures they showed her a rather plain looking girl in her late teens or early twenties, the open smile that she was directing towards the pony that was nudging her chest was inviting and any remaining doubts that she had fell away in an instant. Mouse brown hair, turned golden blonde about half way down from the sun, eyes that seemed too vary from blue to a vibrant green, she seemed just perfect for Harry. After glancing for permission she flicked through the album looking at all of the pictures of the girl. All but one of them she was with one animal or another and in that one picture the light seemed to be gone from her eyes. It was at a party or family reunion with people all around and while she was smiling for the camera, it was missing something. Maybe the child would be good for her too. While the people talked to the girl on the phone she listened interestedly to the conversation. Some different doubts started to emerge when she heard the man say to treat the child like she would any of her animals and it would be fine. After hanging up they said that she had agreed, if reluctantly and even so she would never abuse anything that came her way. With that in mind she led them through to the nursery where the smaller children slept. A fair few of them were playing loudly on the floor and ran or crawled up to them when they noticed the strangers. A few who didn't looked too young to be that active yet and some were adjusting to their situation but one in particular stood out to them. A little boy, around three years old was sitting cross legged on a bed at the end of the room playing with a pillow case which had a piece of string tied around it. Curious they walked closer to him, the pillow was his teddy they realised when they got closer and he was talking to it like it was real, like their granddaughter used to when she was little. As they got closer he looked up at them and smiled. They gasped and knew that it was him that they had come for. Filling out the paper work they took the boy with them and went to a small store, bought him a few sets of new clothes and went to the hotel where they were staying to pack. From there they went straight to the airport where they spent the last of the travelling funds on an extra ticket for the boy after an argument with the staff who said that it was too late to be booking to go on that flight.

"What do you expect us to do, send this little guy on another flight and meet him at the other end? He can't even talk properly yet!"

Finally they boarded the aircraft and settled the very tired boy down to sleep for as much of the flight as possible.


	2. Chapter 2

When they got to there destination, Perth Australia they were met by the girl saying almost nothing, picked up more bags weight than most of the guys eyeing her off thought was possible and took it out to an older looking dual-cab ute, with a few rusty spots here and there on it loading it on she threaded a piece on rope through the handles of the lighter of the bags and tied it off at both ends with an ease that bespoke years of practice. As she did one of the long sleeves was pushed up, revealing a half sealed wound. The woman stopped her as she was getting into the drivers seat and forced her to reveal it. With a sigh she pulled up her left sleeve revealing a mass of cuts and scratches, none of which were infected but several deep enough to require stiches. During the enter time that her grand mother was fussing over the cuts she just stood relaxing one leg and staring into the distance. She did give a little shriek when the largest one which went from the middle of her forearm, along through the crook of her elbow curving over her toned bicep. One of the boys snickered at the 'weakling girl' and before he knew what was going on he found himself flat on his back with the said female standing over him. He could feel something trickling down the side of his face and when his fingers came away bloody stared in shock. It was even worse when she stood down and told him not to worry, it was all hers and that if he was that worried about a little blood then he had no business calling anyone weak. He and his gang looked down at the arm she had hit him with and noticed that there was indeed blood dribbling of her fingers. A security guard who saw the boy hit the ground walked over then and demanded to know what was going on. When told he demanded to see proof that it was her blood so with a sigh she pulled up her sleave again and she them all the bleeding cuts. Flushing a little he said that she should go up to the hospital and get those treated. She just turned away and after a glare from her grand father made her get in the back seat of her ute, next to the child and wrap her arm in a bandage which was handed to her. the child watched her curiously and reached out to touch her injured arm gently. She looked up in shock and actually looked at the little boy, he gave her a smile and she hesitantly smiled back at him, but went back to settling the bandage. Hours later they reached her parents place, where they stopped and unloaded every thing but the child's extra set of clothes and the note that had been written when he arrived at the orphanage.

This is Harry; he was born on the 31st of July. Both parents are dead and he has no other living relatives.

They guessed that he would be three in a just over a week if that was the case. The boy-child and the girl drove on for another twenty odd kilometres turning occasionally onto worse and worse roads until what had turned into a single lane gravel track through the trees finished at an old looking steel gate which she was quick to leap out and open. Moving the ute through she closed it again but before she could move she was hit by a running dog. Somehow managing to stay on her feet she rubbed its ears with a laugh before turning to the large, longhaired tomcat that was close behind. Other animals ran up to the ute as well, horses, ponies, a donkey, some goats, a few of the younger cows and a hugely muscled bull. Each one was greeted by name and given a scratch in their favourite places before she climbed into the ute with a whistle to the dog that jumped in, the cat having already taken a place on the front seat of the ute. As the ute started forward the animals all moved out of the way before turning and following the vehicle. Harry, having giving the cat enough rubbing for it to move over onto his persons lap, knelt on the seat to look out the back window at the animals. The dog had his head hanging over the side of the ute and his tongue hanging out in a way that made it look like he was grinning. The other animals were running with their heads and tails held high, the younger ones bucking and leaping around in excitement. He laughed at their antics until he felt the ute slowing up a bit. He turned around and sat back down ready to get out as soon as he could. The girl parked under a tree and walked around to get him out. Before she did though she stopped and told him what was going to happen, they were going to go and feed all the animals before going into the house for their own food and that if he needed to go to the toilet or really needed a snack that he was to tell her. If she didn't know then she couldn't do anything about it. He needed help with the toilet and they went inside for a milkshake before starting on the feed run. He didn't think that he could walk very far so she rigged up a sling out of a sturdy piece of material that she found. By tying it in a loop and having it going from behind her neck, in front of her shoulders and hanging fairly loosely across her back he had just enough support to stay on her back while she worked and at the same time making it so she could still use her hands. They put the horses in one of the open paddocks with the donkey, the younger cattle into another paddock with the bull and by that time the dairy stock 4 goats and 2 cows had moved to the cement floored yard next to a three sided shed. Harry was set on the ground by the yard went into the tiny garden shed next to yard and got the small wooden stool and two metal buckets, one big and one small. When this was being done she shut the gate behind them and put halters on the cows and clipped a rope onto on of them, leading it through into the 3 sided shed where she tied it up, getting another rope she did the same to the other cow. Taking the stool and the bigger bucket from Harry she introduced him to both of them, gave them a large scoop of crushed grain each before setting down to milk them out. With quick efficient movements she got them done, talking to Harry and the cows the whole time, asking their opinion which surprisingly she got with a shake of their head and other signals. Each time the bucket got full, she would walk over to a small trailer which had two different drums on it and tip into the one at the front. When both cows were done she took their halters off and sent them back to their paddock with a good scratching. Then she got two of the goats, clipping the rope to their halters before doing the same thing again, the milk going into the back drum this time though. When all the milking was done, the buckets and yard hosed down, Harry got to stand on the front on the trailer while she pulled it towards the house. They stopped at the front of a pair of pens and left the trailer while they took a jug of each type of milk to the house and put them in the fridge. When they came back they brought 2 large feeders with them as well as 2 bottles. As they reached the yard 3 goat kids and around 15 lambs ran forward to the gate screaming to be fed. Setting the feeders on the gates she tipped a measure into each one, more for one pen than the other which were all younger animals. The mix was about half and half out of each tank and the bottles were filled with goats only and fed to the two smallest lambs that were let out of the pen while they fed. This done they washed everything and pulling they trailer with the remaining milk back to the dairy. Because of the amount to feed around all the big animals needed was a simple check that they had enough feed in their respective paddocks. Back at the house she sent a call out for the cats who raced up. There were around 5 or 6 adults including the tom and 2 litters of kittens who were 4 and 7 weeks old. Giving each adult a lump of meat which she had pulled out of the freezer and cut up evenly she picked up the kittens and took them into the pantry where she put them down and got a bowl of diced meat for them too share. The dogs on the veranda got the same and then it was back outside to feed the rabbits in their shed. Harry was absolutely exhausted by that time so she put him in a chair with arms at the table and asked him what he wanted for dinner. She put the all the cats outside except the big tom after checking that the door to their room on the veranda was closed enough to keep the wind out but so they and the dogs could get into it still. When she came back she had a large silver rat on her shoulder and a chocolate brown one running after her. Harry watched in fascination as ran right up to the now sleeping tom and jumped over his tail to climb the chair leg. They ended up having a bowl of soup each which she helped Harry to eat before using a cloth to wipe his face and carrying him straight to her bedroom, the only one in the house. By the time they got there the rats had curled up together in a nest that they had made on the foot of the bed and the smallest of the dogs along with the tomcat had chosen places on the pillows. Ordering them to move further down the bed, she pushed back the blankets and settled him in the bed before putting the rats back in their cage and joining the rest of them.


	3. Chapter 3

In a magical school in Scotland, albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk thinking about the events of the past year or so. The Potters dead, their young son managing to defeat the dark lord Voldemort, Sirius's betrayal, Peter's murder, the celebration and Harry's placement with his non-magical relatives. He popped another lemon flavoured sweet in his mouth and turned from his thoughts back to the awaiting reports on his desk, ones that he had been too distracted to complete earlier. Just as he picked up his quill to start, an alarm went off. Instantly thinking the remaining deatheaters had made anther attack he leapt up and hurried over to the instrument that was making the noise. It was the locator that he had set on the young boy-who-lived, studying it for a minute he thought about what it could mean and then it hit him. Harry potter had just left England. Shocked, he stumbled back over to his chair. After a few minutes he realised that his relatives might have just taken him on a holiday with them somewhere. He called the order to get them on the job as soon as possible. Moody, Kingsley and one of the other aurors were sent to locate the Dursleys and question them as to the whereabouts of the boy. It took them two days to find the Dursleys, who had just flown back in from a holiday overseas. For a minute they were reassured but talking to Albus found that the beacon was still flashing, he hadn't returned with them. Questioning them under veritaserum led them to the orphanage and the girl who had looked after Harry. She willingly told them that she had arranged for Harry to be taken by an elderly couple who said that there granddaughter would look after the boy. she even showed them a copy of the note she had written for the boy. When they told her that he was a very important child she broke down saying that she only did it to save him from the abuse that he would receive if he had stayed at the orphanage. The team told her that it was alright and that the owner would no longer be abusing her or the children anymore. They organised for her to take over the running of the orphanage which they found to be the one which Tom had been to as well. The girl told them that the people who took them by seemed to speak English as a native language but had an accent which she wasn't sure of. With this fact in mind he sent out messages to contacts he had in all the English speaking countries they could think of asking them to do a point me spell for Harry potter. It was another few days before an owl returned saying that it had worked and that Harry was somewhere in Australia. With the message was a port key that was set to take a maximum of 2 people to Sydney Australia if they weren't taking any luggage. Looking through the order for people who could go on this mission which could take a few weeks at a minimum it was decided by a vote that the best candidates for the position were Severus Snape, who as a marked death eater but spy for the light was currently unable to get a job anywhere other than the school or Remus lupin who had the same problem being a werewolf. Due to the possibility that he would be gone during the full moon it was decided that Snape was the best shot they had and he was then able to take a trunk with him. After a large and drawn-out argument and the subsequent sulk Snape set out on the 'ridiculous' quest.

Days were spent searching and travelling until he finally tracked them to a farm. he watches from a distance for another few days and as she seemed to be handling all the animals and the boy with no problems Snape sent an owl back to Dumbledore to say that he had found the boy and that though he looks safe enough he will be staying for a few more days before returning and that if any one wishes to find out anything they had better send it in the next message other wise it would not get asked.

Another two days of watching and the awaited owl flew in with its message from the order. By now Snape was curious about the girl. She seemed self sufficient on that property of hers and although she was a muggle and lived by her self had on problems getting every thing done in daylight hours, she even had spare time. The boy was another matter. Snape had known his father to be an arrogant bastard when they were in school. With the way that he was being raised by the girl there was no chance of that. The day after Snape had found them it had been the boy's birthday and at first he wondered if the girl even knew. They had gotten up that morning, fed all the animals, milked the stock, moved the beef cattle to a new paddock, brushed the horses and done numerous other jobs before lunch time. Just before noon a vehicle had driven in the gate and after the driver had been inspected by one of the dogs was let in the gate. as far as he could tell, the boy had gotten clothes, a new bed which made him wonder where the child had been sleeping before and several hand made items. The only thing that was a luxury was a hand made toy, the rest were necessities. After the party guests had gone it was back to work with the afternoon chores. The night after the letter came was a full moon, expecting then to stay inside after dark he was surprised when the door opened and the girl stepped out of the house barefoot, as she normally was when she was dealing with her 'pets' wearing lose black jeans and a tight shorts-leaved black shirt that had a snarling Chinese style dragon, immobile but well drawn in silver curling from the back all the way around. She whistled and her dogs bounded out of the night to join her on beyond the veranda. With sigh she disappeared back inside for a minute and came back with Harry who was also dressed in dark colours, but warmer clothes. Together they walked through the paddocks down to the large dam and sat watching the moon rise over the water. When it had cleared the horizon she picked him up and walked back to the house. Expecting them to go to bed now he was tempted to go but the dogs seemed to be waiting for something so he stayed. When she emerged again he realised what it was. Her hair was bound in a plait and sheathed knife was at her belt. A hunt, interested as to how good she was he watched as she glided towards the bush, neither her nor her dogs making any sound that carried to his position. He followed as she broke into a low run whistling a few times, short sharp sounds one of the dogs broke away from the others and streaked over the grassed hill towards the dam before looping around and coming back. When the others saw it they moved further down, to where the trees and shrubs followed the creek line down to the dam. Again she whistled and this time a different dog left, when it reached a point on its curve it stopped and dropped to the ground silently. Creeping froward on its belly it gathered itself and lunged, racing after the rabbit it had just flushed out. Barking just once, it tried to herd to rabbit towards the others who were now alert and coming towards them. They didn't need to as it turned out because it changed directions too slowly and the dog had it, snapping its neck with a shake of its head. The girl ran up and took the rabbit, praising all three of her dogs before sending the third one out. This one sniffed its way back to where the last had been flushed from and tracked down a second one. This too was caught and killed. By the end of the hunt they had 5 rabbits and had only lost two. She was so Hufflepuff he thought but at the same time, she gave commands easily and was too introverted to be one. Deciding to talk to her tomorrow he went back to the place that he had set up camp.

A howl ripped through the silence of the night. In the minutes that followed he heard movement back in the trees from where he was, deciding that prudence was the best course he quickly climbed the closest tree. It looked like a werewolf from where he was and he wasn't about to climb down to check. After sniffing around the tree for a minute it tracked where he came from. Stopping suddenly with its hackles raised as another howl echoed, seeming to be warning about something it broke into a jog following where the sound came from. Against his better judgement he found himself summoning his broom to follow. The beast stopped at the edge of the tree line and looked towards the group in the paddock. Running and playing with each other, the girl and her dogs were slowly getting further and further away from the trees and into the open. The beast started towards them again, dropping to the ground as it got closer. One of the dogs yelped and ran in the direction of the beast, bounding in abandon. "here!" came the girls call. The dog stopped and dropped his tail, slinking back to her side. The others followed, but so did the beast. It was gathering itself to spring an attack at the girl when the biggest of the dogs leapt at it, latching onto the scruff of its neck. When it went to attack that one another latched onto its hind leg, the third standing, waiting for the order. It came with the snap of the girl fingers and in that instant the last dog leapt forward to grab the beast's throat. Instantly it stopped fighting and Snape was wondering if he was going to have to deal with the body in the morning when the girl snarled, as well as any of the dogs. They all let go and in an instant were by her side growling at the beast, their teeth beared. Stupid! He thought letting it go like that. The wolf looked up at the girl standing stiff legged with her arms tense but ready, the snarl still on her face and stopped. It was confused. This was not how it was supposed to work! At a growl from her the dogs advanced ready to attack at any second. It stepped back and then again. They drove the beast down by the dam where they harassed it into a cage and shut the door, bolting it so that only human hands could open it. As soon as it was bolted she gave all the dogs a pat and went back to the house to clean the rabbits. Snape went straight to bed; this was getting to be too much for one night. She was meant to be a muggle but she was certainly able to deal with that werewolf with no problems, she wasn't even surprised by it. Damn it, muggles weren't supposed to know these things.


	4. Chapter 4

In the morning while she was milking he walked around to the gate and went through it he stiffened as the dog ran up to him with a few loud barks sniffing him with stiff legs before barking again. He stepped forward and to his surprise the dog let him, trotting just in front of him. It kept looking back over his shoulder almost as if to make sure he was still following. at the dairy, the girl hadn't stopped working, with two more goats to go, she simply looked in his direction and arched an eyebrow. He stood and watched her work in silence as she occasionally spoke to the animal soothing it or scolding it when it moved. When she got up to empty the bucket he finally spoke to her.

"Where is the boy?"

She stopped and gave him an even look. "You should know; you've been watching long enough." Then she moved her stool to the next goat and continued working, not even looking in his direction. Too trusting for her own good he thought with a mental sneer, I could draw my wand or even a knife and she would be dead before she realised. He put a hand into his pocket to get the list of questions out and heard movement to one side of him putting a hand on his wand instead he glanced around and saw that a second dog had joined he first and both were watching him closely.

"They will only attack if you threaten me, Harry or any of the domestic animals here." She never glanced up once when she spoke but had some how correctly guessed what he was doing and therefore thinking. He realised that it was because of the 3rd dog who was doing the same as the others was standing on the other side of the goat, in her line of sight. So he stood with one hand in his pocket and watched as she finished. Turning the goats back into the paddock she continued with her routine, washing down the shed. He simply moved to one side and let her keep going. For her part she seemed not to care that he was there and just kept going. Knowing that she was perfectly capable of taking the milk to its destination he walked and that she would probably take offence if he tried, he made no move to take it for her but simply walked beside her as she took it to the lambs yard. He had never found out what the inside of the house looked like so when she held door open he was a little nervous about entering, not about to let her know that he went anyway and stood in the kitchen while she walked through to what appeared to be a sitting room and beyond it. A few seconds a cat strolled out followed by a pair of rats who ran straight to the kitchen climbing up onto the back of one of the chairs. It was almost a minute later that she came out again carrying Harry. Putting him into the chair with armrests again she pointed to the chair occupied by the cat.

"sit" she said. "Diesel, off" the cat stood, stretching before jumping to the floor and strolling over to Harry's seat.

"No, scat" he said to it. The tom just sat and looked at him. Moving over to the wood oven and stove in the corner she stoked the fire and put more wood on it before turning to the males. "Porridge, toast or cereal."

"Porridge," Harry called.

"I'll have the same" Snape said after a moment, looking at her strangely as she started. "Goat or cows milk."

"Goat!" Harry yelled. Not bothering to check with her other guest who she thought would not care she turned back to the stove. As a potions master Snape approved of the ease at which she moved around the kitchen.

"Tea, coffee, hot chocolate or milkshake."

"Milkshake"

"tea" Were her responses and they too were made in the same efficient motions that he had seen her use on almost everything. At the same time the porridge was stirred, the cat evicted off the boys lap and a rat from the table. When the drinks were on the table the porridge was ready, dished, and put on the table along with the jug of goats' milk, sugar, honey and spoons. She started eating and helping Harry at the same time. With a shake of his head Snape started on his breakfast, it was good. He couldn't help but think that she would do well in a potions lab, but then if she wanted that then she would be there not looking after animals. No wait what was he thinking, she was a muggle! An inferior, or was she. Even though he was a part of the order it was only because he didn't believe in the methods that Voldemort went about trying to fix the problem that he didn't like. Pushing the thoughts to the back of him mind he continued with his breakfast. When Harry had finished with the last of his breakfast she washed the dishes and Harry's face before picking him up and taking him to the door. Turning back she said,

"Come, the babies need feeding."

Putting Harry down so he could walk over to the lambs she grabbed the feeders and took them over. This time she put them down outside the yard, going in and looking at the lambs. Picking out one who looked oldest in the younger yard she put him in the bigger yard then fed them, not using the bottles this time. When they were fed she chose the oldest out of the big yard and put them out with some older sheep. They would be weaned now and the goat kids joined them. The next job that she did while she had company was work one of the horses. Grabbing a saddle out and a pair of boots she caught one of the horses, a large grey gelding and tacked him up quickly. She told the boys to stay at the edge of the paddock, under a tree and before Snape knew what was happening he was babysitting the boy while she rode. Maybe she wasn't so Hufflepuff after all. The horse was amazing to watch as he glided around the paddock with a showy, high step, the perfect picture of arrogance. In perfect control on top she sat, concentrating only on what the animal was doing using firm but gentle commands she got him to do every thing she asked, jumping several rails before calling him to a halt and jumping off. Harry for his part sat in the dirt playing with a stick that he found. Unsaddling quickly she let the gelding go and grabbed a different horse, this one was ridden slowly around the paddock stopping quickly on command and turning even faster, sitting on her back legs while using her fronts to throw herself in to the turns. Curious as to why she would be trained to do this he opened the gate when she asked him too and carried the boy as they moved to the paddock with the younger cattle as he reached the gate he realised what he was carrying and quickly put the brat down. When she had the horse in the gate she directed it to separate one of the youngsters from the others, stopping spinning and running in almost perfect synchronism with it. Pulling her back and walking out of the paddock. Seeing that the boy was almost asleep she asked Snape to lift him up onto the horse for the walk back and once again he did it before realising, damn she was good at that!

"Both the horses that I worked today are for sale, that is why I had to ride them." After a while he asked,

"How much will you get for them?"

"This one is 7500 and the other one is 5000, but I bought both of them for 1000 each." Then they were back at the paddock and he pulled the boy down with out a single suggestion and held him while she unsaddled and released the horse. She took the boy though as soon as she had and carried him back to the house, asking quietly to pull the boys blankets back for her. Curious as to where they slept, he followed helped settle the boy into the small bed against one wall, there was also another bed in the room so he guessed that it was hers. Moving back to the sitting room she sat back on large couch and all the animals in the room were quick to join her. He shook his head at that and sat himself in the now empty seat on the other side of the unlit fire place. "Now down to business, why is it that you have been watching me for these last few days?" Snape looked at her in surprise, trying at the last moment to keep it from showing so distinctly on has face.

"I was sent on a mission to find the location of the boy. When he was orphaned he was placed with his last blood relatives and on the last routine check it was found that they had dumped him. I was designated to find if he was in good hands and if not to take him back to England." She glanced at him again and paused in stroking the cat in her lap who flicked its tail in annoyance.

"So... What was it that you were going to pull from your pocket this morning before Anubis stopped you?" He stood for a moment and pulled out the letter.

"The group who sent me had some questions that they wanted answered. I think I can answer most of them now but I was just going to check what else was on the list."

"Why are you so nervous about asking now?" he sneered at her and was about to retort when he noticed the look on her face, it was torn between amusement and… fear? Why would she be scared? Surely he didn't look that scary, or was it something else. She was muggle after all, but how did she know when he was nervous, she can't know him well enough for that yet. Even Dumbledore himself still struggled with that, he never let anyone get that close to him. The other question that was bugging him was why she trusted him so much. Was it the same reason that he had been content with watching for another day instead of having this discussion? No it couldn't be. He refused to even think about it. She was right about one thing though, he didn't want to have this conversation yet. He realised that he was still standing and quickly sat again with the letter in his hands. All traces of amusement had faded from her face in the meantime, leaving fear and apprehension. When he sat, some of that faded from her face, so she didn't want him to leave did she? Or was it just that she was afraid that he was going to do something to her, while he towered over her. As an escape he looked at the letter in his hands and scanned through the questions that were listed there. Here was a chance to get to know her a little more; he asked her some of the questions on the list.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty, this year." Two years younger than me he thought.

"Do you have an actual job, or do you just work around here?"

"I sell the lambs for meat when they are around 1 year old, I sell the calves at around the same age, I buy and retrain horses, I sell kittens, baby rabbits and young pet rats but yeah all of that is around here. It provides me with a steady income." Yes, he had seen all of that.

"Now this is one that I am not sure who added, but do you have any 'special abilities'" "What like? I mean I can almost automatically tell what mood my animals are in and had little trouble learning to understand what each type was trying to tell me and have no trouble telling them what I want from them."

"Was that the same with the beast last night?" she blushed slightly, she had thought her stalker was watching but still she had to decide if that was going to be enough to persuade her t put those clothes on instead of what she normally wore. It was a good thing that she had.

"Sort of. It's more like he doesn't understand why I react like I do, but my dogs know that I am the alpha here. All my animals know that even though they are reluctant to believe it sometimes." He wondered where the blush had come from.

"Is that all, you have never made things move, disappear, change or anything like that?"

"Not frequently. Harry on the other hand surprised me…"

"What did he do?" she said nothing, just looked at him for a minute before starting to roll up the left sleave of her shirt. It reminded him of what he had seen death eaters do in the past, what he had done a few times and for a moment he thought he was going to see a tattoo grinning at him but the bottom of a scar started to show before the mark would so he relaxed slightly. When the sleave reached her shoulder he could see that it was a mass of scars, all of them were well healed. His confusion must have shown of his face because she explained.

"It got these trying to get a stupid cow out of a barbed wire fence. They were fresh the day I pick my grandparents and Harry up from the airport. When my grand mother poked at them they started to bleed again I was light headed so grandfather drove us to town but as I bandaged it Harry put his hand on the biggest one and it started to heal, it scabbed up straight away. I was even able to drive back here from town and get all the evening chores done before I had to go to bed but I didn't quite make it to getting a bed for Harry so he bunked in with me, Diesel and Tamazin when I woke in the morning he was awake already and was stroking each of them and as he did they healed a little more. I stopped him though because he was getting tired." Snape was silent for a while before responding that he was going to be especially powerful if that was the case. He sat back in the chair relaxing into the soft padding. That was how they stayed for the next hour before Harry came stumbling out of the bedroom, dragging his toy behind him. He went straight to Snape and muttered a hello before continuing on to the other couch where he climbed onto her lap, pushing the cat off the edge. Curling up for a cuddle she stroked his hair not unlike what she had been doing with the cat a minute earlier. He almost smiled, the scene was so cute. Wait! He did not just say that. That was going to seriously damage his reputation if it ever got out, but he was all the way over in Australia how were they going to find out. When Harry finished waking up they all headed for the kitchen to have some lunch which she again made for them. Then they went back outside and did some more work on the farm. It was sunset before they made it back in that night, after dinner she took Harry in to give him a bath and offered Snape the chance to use the bathroom next if he wanted so he made to trek through the quickly darkening landscape to where he had been camped. Looking at his things he decided to pack it all and sleep a little closer to the house. He pushed everything into his trunk and closed it with a snap. As he made his way back to the house he realised that he hadn't actually introduced himself yet and not once had either of them called each other by name, she probably didn't even know his and yet she had let him into her home and fed him. She had though, proved several times that she was in perfect control on the situation. That was something else he had to ask her, was it a normal occurrence for people to follow her orders or was he the only one stupid enough to do it. back at the house he dumped his trunk in the sitting room next to one of the couches and walked through to the bathroom again. Harry was out of the bath and was trying to help the girl to dress him self with out much luck. Telling him self that it was only so they would get out of the bathroom he held the boys arms while she dressed him and carried him out of the room. Closing the door after them Snape then had to figure out how to get the shower to work. When he was finished and dressed he went back out to the kitchen, the girl was making them dinner. Turning to him she asked if he had done much cooking before,

"Yes but I have never tried with distractions like this." After giving him some basic instructions she left him to it while she went and had a shower. She was only gone a few minutes, knowing that he would be struggling with keeping everything going. When she returned she noticed that he wasn't doing all that badly but took over cooking again anyway, leaving him to handle the child and pets. Later that night they were again sitting on the couches while Harry slept in the bedroom. They sat for half an hour in total silence before Snape finally cleared his throat and started. "So…" she just raised an eyebrow at him. "I realised before that we never actually introduced ourselves. Tell me one thing, do you actually have any idea what my name is?" She gave him a half smile

"No, but do you know mine either?"

He admitted that he didn't because no one had actually mentioned it. The smile grew,

"Good," she said "at least we're even, on equal footing at the moment."

"Right. My name is Severus Snape"

"Melakharie Bastere but call me Khari"

"Ok, if you call me Severus" A raised eyebrow dares her to refuse.

"Now that's out of the way. Why is Harry so important? I'm not stupid enough to think that an organised group would track a young child for no reason."

"How much are you willing to believe? That is the question."

"I know that there is more that can be done than the average person knows, as I have already said."

"Well that changes things. To get started, I am a wizard and so is Harry. I'm not sure what you are but we can get to that later. Over is England and Scotland we have been fighting someone who believed that only pureblood wizards and witches, those who have been born with only magical blood should live to be taught magic. He used torture and murder to get his point across, killing every one who disagreed with him or his ideals. On Halloween a year and a half ago he and a few of his most loyal followers attacked the house of a couple and their infant son. Both the parents sacrificed them selves to save their son and it paid off. As the dark lord tried to kill the boy his curse rebounded onto him, destroying him and leaving the baby with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. The boy is the saviour of the magical world, destroyer of the dark lord and the only one to survive the killing curse which claimed hundreds of lives. He is Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived." There was a slight sneer is his voice as he said the last.

"So on whose behalf did you come?"

"I would have thought that to be obvious."

"I know which side, not who is your leader."

"Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts school and leader of the main attack force of the light. The boy's parents were close to him having studied under him for seven years."

"Learning magic I suppose." He nodded.

"He will be asked to go to this school when he is old enough?"

"And what age is this?"

"Eleven." She shook her head in disbelief.

"And how long does it take to travel there?"

"That depends on if he is accompanied. With the aid of an object called a portkey I can get there in a matter of minutes but they will only work once and it only goes to a special room at the ministry of magic, from there another method of transport is used. For me it is just one trip but he will have to go to kings cross train station and catch a train to the school with all the other students, it is tradition."

"Right, that is still years in the future though. What kind of stuff will he be learning?"

"Charms, transfiguration, magical herbology, defence against the dark arts and potions."

"Is potions your favourite or something?"

"I have been offered a position teaching the class next year. As well as that I have completed my certification as a master in the subject as of last month."

"Have you had much experience with non magical herbals and essences?"

"Not much and I imagine that they would be different here."

She nodded. "Now let's get back to what you mentioned before. Why don't you know what I am?" Severus lent forward in his chair.

"You haven't received any training have you?" she shook her head no. "I didn't think so. You said that you heal faster, you are empathic, have you ever made other things happen when you are scared or angry?"

"Nothing stands out."

"Yet that beast didn't behave right."

"I have wondered about that. Its not the first time that it has happened but I can only normally do that with humans." She blushed and looked down.

"I suppose that I have been subjected to it several times?"

"Yes"

"Hmm, very subtle, I didn't even notice that you were doing it. I am guessing that it is subconscious?"

"Yes I hardly ever notice that I am doing it, that is why I usually stay away from people. As well as that, I have tried but I can't control it."

"Do you want to?" she hesitated. "I can teach you to control it but it will take time, are you willing to put up with me for a few more months? If not then I can try to find someone else to teach you. Either way you must learn, it is a danger to you as well as others."

"I could do with a little help now that I have Harry here, so if you are willing to help with the workload so we have time then yes."

"I am agreeable with that. Do you mind if I use magic for some things, like cleaning?"

"That would cut down on the time I need to spend in the house."

"Indeed"

"Sure, the only question is where you are going to sleep. The only spare bedroom I have is on the veranda, occupied by animals. Harry is in my room. For now here will have to do but I will see if I can work some thing out tomorrow." She stood, clearing the space in front of the couch she had been sitting on. Snape watched curiously as she pulled the cushions off and folded out a thin framed queen sized bed. She motioned him to follow and walked into her room. She was kneeling by the end of her bed by the time he got in there and was pulling at something underneath it. He helped and they soon had a mattress out in the open. After that it was in no time at all that they had it set up and settled in for the night.


End file.
